Joanie Garratt #

Introduction #

Joanie Garratt is a veteran Southern California educator who says she was pushed out of a month-long substitute assignment at Beverly Hills High School in November 2024 after posting criticism of Donald Trump and his supporters on her personal Facebook page. The Beverly Hills Unified School District denies that she was ever fired, countering that she retired from full-time teaching years ago and remains a substitute teacher in the district. The dispute grew from an administrative claim filed in December 2024 into a lawsuit filed in August 2026, in which Garratt contends the district punished her for political speech protected by the First Amendment and state labor law.

Background Information #

Garratt spent 30 years in the classroom, 15 of them in the Beverly Hills Unified School District. “It was an amazing 30 years and I enjoyed almost every moment of it,” she said at an August 2026 news conference. According to her attorney, civil rights lawyer V. James DeSimone, she retired from full-time teaching after three decades in the district — including 15 years at Beverly Hills High School — but stayed on as a substitute and volunteered as faculty facilitator for the school’s Interact Club. In the fall of 2024 the district hired her for a one-month substitute stint to help students prepare for the rigorous AP U.S. History exam. She started on November 4, 2024, and was expected to teach through December 5, the date of her planned retirement.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

On November 6, 2024, the day after the presidential election, student supporters of Trump held a rally at Beverly Hills High School and then marched through the halls displaying Trump flags, banners and regalia, according to DeSimone. The crowd gathered outside a classroom where the school’s Black Student Union was meeting; Black students reported being targeted with racist slurs, and the group allegedly harassed students who had not supported Trump, per the attorney. “This was extremely intimidating to students of color and students who did not agree with them,” DeSimone said. “Several of those students went to Joanie Garratt’s classroom and they confided in her, some teary eyed.”

The next day, Garratt took to her personal Facebook page. She wrote that she was “disheartened” by the event: “A MAGA faction dressed in full Trump regalia (banners draped around them, flying banners, red hats) not only had a MAGA rally on campus but harassed & intimidated many other non-MAGA students and specifically targeted the class where the Black Student Union was meeting, yelling all kinds of racial slurs. Some students arrived at school truly upset & even crying only to be bullied later by their classmates. And don’t blame the administration for this. They are dealing with it. This comes from their leader, His Majesty, King Trump.” Six days later, she received an email from Assistant Superintendent Matthew Horvath — “Posts which appear to be from your personal account have come to my attention. Please plan to meet with me tomorrow to discuss” — and, by DeSimone’s account, when Garratt asked “Am I fired?” the answer was, “Yeah, we don’t want you coming back.” Her attorney says that despite no reported disruptions in her classroom, her dismissal took effect on November 13, with Horvath telling her during a brief phone call that the post led to it and citing no further explanation. She says she was fired less than a month before her planned December 5 retirement.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

In December 2024, Garratt filed an administrative claim against the district — a demand for compensation that serves as a precursor to litigation — alleging wrongful termination and violation of her First Amendment rights. She contended she suffered loss of sleep, emotional distress and other injuries from the alleged dismissal, and sought at least $50,000 and potentially an order of reinstatement. Superintendent of Schools Michael Bregy disputed her account in a statement: “Ms. Garratt retired from full-time teaching in BHUSD years ago and was serving and remains a substitute teacher in the district. No action was taken to dismiss her or any other employee in the last month.” He added that the district’s focus remained “on fostering an educational environment where students and staff are respected and valued.” DeSimone argued the post was constitutionally protected: “Joanie’s post, which criticized harassment at the rally and attributed student conduct to political rhetoric whipped up as part of Donald Trump’s re-election strategy, is constitutionally protected speech.” He said the decision contradicted the district’s own policy that personal beliefs or activities outside work should not be grounds for discipline unless they violate the law or policy, and pledged to “fully vindicate Ms. Garratt’s rights.” Garratt, for her part, has insisted she never discussed Trump, the election or the demonstration in her classes.

Current Status #

Nearly two years after the post, Garratt sued the Beverly Hills Unified School District, seeking unspecified damages and arguing that the district violated state labor law and her First Amendment rights by punishing her for expressing her political views on her own time and her own Facebook page. At an August 18, 2026 news conference, she described the episode as “certainly one of the most traumatic experiences of my life, because I looked at Beverly Hills Unified School district as my home away from home … And now I’m persona non grata.” DeSimone told reporters, “Free speech still exists in the United States of America. Freedom of speech is important, and people should be able to express their opinions without fear of retaliation.” The district has maintained its position that she was never dismissed and remains on its substitute roster.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

If her account is credited, Garratt lost the final month of a three-decade teaching career — removed from the AP U.S. History assignment she had taken to help students, just weeks before a planned retirement on December 5, 2024. She has framed the loss in personal terms, saying she viewed the district as a “home away from home” where she had “so many wonderful experiences,” only to feel cast out as “persona non grata” over a post made on her own time. Her claim also catalogued the toll she attributes to the episode, including loss of sleep and emotional distress. Whether the episode was a firing or, as the district insists, nothing more than the end of a temporary assignment, it has become a test of whether public employees can comment on politics outside the classroom without fear of retaliation.